The primary goal of the research is to identify the FT and BP genes responsible for several intrinsic antibiotic resistance, virulence and stress tolerance traits. The results should provide mechanistic insights into the physiological basis of each and may identify potential antibacterial drug targets. An additional set of experiments will help define BP species diversity in these and other phenotypes, and may identify diagnostic tests to differentiate natural isolates. As part of the project, a new-generation sequencing-based technology for assessing the makeup of transposon mutant pools of will be developed.